[SD:FS] Red Card - Chapter 11

Gem dodges back and swipes out with a wind blade. Their reaction is a little slow and as they retreat are pelted with shards of rock. Though

Gem dodges back and swipes out with a wind blade.

Their reaction is a little slow and as they retreat are pelted with shards of rock. Though it is only shards of rock as their wind blade was enough to redirect the stray shot. Still hurts though.

Gem laughs, “It’s only been a minute and I’m working my way through my wind blades! Shame that I think this fight is winding down.”

Over by Silverwhiskers’ wagon June sighs, “And I’ll feel a lot better. We have a perfectly fine shield! You don’t have to risk life and limb against the fallout of a fight you can’t do anything about.”

Gem scoffs, “I’ll be fine! Anything coming our way is weak sauce compared to their actual attacks. That wasn’t even an attack! The monkey simply bashed a rock aside as it dodged.”

June, “All the more reason to get over here! Your wind blades aren’t going to do a thing against the actual attacks.”

Though their argument becomes moot as the green rank monkey decides it has had enough and with a hoot and a holler, calls a retreat. Well, calling a retreat implies there are others to retreat. That very much isn’t the case as the only uncanny monkeys still around are hidden behind trees in the distance.

Either way, the green rank threat gallops off into the forest. This leaves the caravan in guard, but relieved. Though of course things can’t end peacefully for Gem.

Now that the fight is over, Se’llium decides it is time to express his displeasure. “You! Boy! How dare you insult Us! I demand retribution!”

Gem laughs, “Not a boy! They/them if you please. Also, retribution? The one who should get retribution is you! How dare you push monsters at others without need or consent? Aren’t you some sort of rich, noble type?

“Because I would figure your guards are more than enough to handle some grey and white rank monkeys. Or are you a paper tiger?”

Se’llium draws himself up, nose in the air, and looks down at Gem. Which Gem honestly finds a bit impressive since Gem isn’t exactly short. “Well, little Girl! You can’t fool me. I’ve treated with a few travellers and know your sort!”

And he tries to say something more, but the space in front of his face pixelates and no sound can be heard.

Then a being about the size of a cat that looked like a western dragon but with the wings of a butterfly appears with a pop, flash of a fully circular rainbow, and a small shower of glitter.

There is now a big playing card in their hand that is entirely red, which they bat Se’llium with. “RED CARD! I don’t particularly like how loose some of the rules are, but you broke one of them despite the loopholes!

“Mind you, ignorance shouldn’t be punished, so to start you were fine, even by my standards. But if it was me? Boy, Howdy! You’d be in trouble for purposefully misgendering them.

“As it is, though? You take them as they are here! No bringing in their other life. We have our eyes on you now. Anyway, this has been Akesi Waso Pali Suli and I’m signing out!” And with that, the fairy dragon turns into a bunch of bubbles that all pop over the next five seconds.

Though one bubble lasts just long enough to end up in front of Se’llium’s face as it pops. He jerks back at this and whacks his head on one of his guards who had gotten close to protect him.

Se’llium shakes his fist at the sky, “Accursed being! How dare you—” and one of his guards claps their hand over his mouth and drags him into his carriage. From inside said carriage they can barely hear, “This isn’t the last you’ve seen of me!”

Gem rolls their eyes, “Well that was something.” They turn to Silverwhiskers, “So, what was that?”

Silverwhiskers shrugs, “Some representative of the Creators. They don’t show up often. Though that tends to be because we’ve learned what not to do for them to show up. They don’t actually have all that much power.

“Their role is more along the lines of a message you can’t ignore. Though that was an interesting name. Most tend to just call themselves an admin or moderator.”

June sighs, “And they did. That wasn’t common, it was Toki Pona. A pre-SAI conlang. Even now, after all these years, it has less than 150 recognized words and is up there with Esperanto in popularity.

“What they said basically translates to ‘Administrator who is a flying lizard’, IE, a dragon admin. Though they probably could have added on Pipi for the insect wings. I would guess they identify more with dragons over fae dragons.”

Silverwhiskers scratches his head, “That’s uh, a bit limiting of a vocabulary. You’d think it wouldn’t work.”

Samuel nods, “I would expect the SAI to instead go with some language that has a specific word for everything instead of a language with basically no words.”

June shrugs, “Some have gone for the many word approach. However, just as many went in the opposite direction. Toki Pona is actually one of the more moderate options. Though the most extreme languages also tend to be hyper specialized. I figure the use of Toki Pona and Esperanto is more of a ‘looking back’ sort of response.”

Gem grins, “Or maybe they just like the language? Sounds fun and if it has that few words? Well, might be easy enough to get a general vibe of.”

Merchant Silverwhiskers claps his hands, “Okay, while it is interesting to learn about the Creators and their people, we need to get back to our wagon. The caravan needs to get moving. No need to tempt any opportunists.”

And the caravan does get going much faster than previous such encounters. Though Gem wasn’t shy about noting how much of that likely came from a certain noble not holding things up. In fact, during the rest of the trip, no one saw the noble again and everything went so much smoother.

Not that they didn’t hear him. The noble brat was more than happy to yell and cuss from inside of his carriage. It was just that the head guard took Akesi Waso Pali Suli at their word. Oh, and said guard was in Se’llium’s father’s employ. No one doubted that if said guard was his, he would not have been staying in his carriage.

But whatever Se’llium’s plan might have been, the group wasn’t going to find out. As the caravan pulled into the goal of this entire trip, the port city of Whale Island, his carriage broke off from the group and met up with a group who seemed to have been waiting for him. A group that also got to cut in line and enter the city right away, but that’s what you get when you involve nobles.

Besides, Gem was more interested in the city’s name. “I don’t see any island. How’d it get that name? Like, when I heard it originally, I assumed it would either be built on an island or there’d be some interestingly shaped island off the coast.”

Silverwhiskers laughs, “Well, that’s the trick! The name admittedly is out-dated at this point. There used to be an island, though it wasn’t whale shaped. Rather, whales from all over would come and visit it. Whales still do tend to congregate in the area which is good for trade.

“The Cetaceans and their folk and kin are the mortal enemies of the Krakens, squids, and their folk. The squidkin are removed enough and have fought to be recognized as separate. Krakenkin as well, though those are side eyed something fierce. What with the Kraken species’ propensity towards mind magics.

“Oh, just a second. You’ll want to look out that away.” And he points.

The caravan had finally made it through the gate. Off to the side in the direction pointed, the ocean extends out into the distance. There are tens of ships out on the sea though only half have sails. A number of alternate methods powers the other half.

Oars being rowed by golems, the water itself rising up to push, water wheels with beasts in the center to push, giant turtles pulling, a regular carriage pulled by a horse as if the water was solid ground, and more than a couple flying ships.

Merchant Silverwhiskers laughs, “Love that look! You travellers are always expecting sailing ships with a bunch of sails.

“Anyway, the island is gone and they decided to keep the name because of why it is gone. Seems the island wasn’t actually an island. Rather, it was the counter to the Krakens, a Leviathan. The biggest Cetacean there is.

“The thing was just recovering and ended up like one of those island turtles. Though scholars are guessing this was more purposeful. Instead of the dirt covering them through natural accumulation, it is assumed other Cetaceans helped cover it so the being could hide.”

Emrys, “That. Wow.”

Silverwhiskers nods, “A bit of a thing.”

And then the group is distracted. The caravan has wound its way down the oddly curvy main street and is now into the marketplace. The noise overpowers any attempts to talk. There are smells at both extremes of the spectrum. And the sights!

The ships were amazing, but this? All the colors of the rainbow and then some! Rugs with patterns from all corners of the world and even some from irl. Jewelry with everything from diamonds to bones. Clothing in any style you can imagine!

And the magic! It was like a mix of old school signage and futuristic neon cyberpunk ads. Not every stall, but at least a third of them. Though there is the rare stall without any signage, instead letting their products speak for themselves. Which works! Though that might have to do with how competitive these main road stalls must be.

Things finally quiet down as they get into the area with all the inns meant for the merchants. They’re easy enough to pick out. What with the almost modern looking parking garages they have attached to house the numerous wagons.

Silverwhiskers glances over at the four and sighs, “Well, I guess this is where we part. It’s been fun chatting with you all.”

Gem smiles, “It really has! If we bump into you again, we’ll have to bum a ride off you! Maybe by then, we’ll be high enough level to be a proper defense.”

The side of Silverwhiskers’ mouth quirks upward, “Yeah, I’d like that. Not often I get to ride with people like you guys. Most people are either hardened old hands or just looking to get to the next city over.”

Emrys shrugs, “You played it straight with us. That alone means I’d be fine joining up with you for another trip.”

June nods, “If we hadn’t decided to get some ocean adventure in, I’d be voting to stick with you.”

Silverwhiskers shrugs, “Eh, you’d want to split off, anyway. I’m currently running this specific loop. Shame, I don’t really know any shop Captains to direct you towards. Though I’ll put the word out to my family in case you run into them wherever you go. In fact, give me a second.” And he starts to dig through a bag behind his seat.

He pulls four pins and hands one to each of them. “These are white tokens of recognition for my family. They won’t get you any discounts, but if you come across one of our wagons while out in the wilds? These will at least let you tag along with them until you reach the next settlement.”

Samuel, “Useful. Though I must admit, it didn’t seem like you had the biggest of organizations behind you? Not meaning anything by it, but you made it feel like this was most of what there was.”

Silverwhiskers laughs and slaps his knee, “Fair! I just don’t like running large wagon trains, which thankfully matches my family’s merchant company. We aren’t the biggest or the most widespread, but we have individuals around.”

Their wagon arrives at where Silverwhiskers will be staying and there might be a tear in Gem’s eye, “Well, hopefully we see you later!”

Silverwhiskers holds his arms out, “You’ll always be welcome.”

Gem hugs him back.

It’s a terrible day for rain.

Green Threat, Yellow Ally - Chapter 10

More Se'llium - Chapter 12